By Sunny Awhefeada
The sudden death of Professor Atare Otite on Saturday, August 2, 2024 was shocking to all who knew him.
A professor of political science, he was ebullient till the last moment and gave no inkling that he was about to breast the tape of life. He drove himself for a distance of about one hundred kilometers, made some stopovers and those who saw him said that he was his usual energetic self.
He spoke with some persons, scheduling appointments for the weekend and cancelling others as he was preparing for the funeral of an uncle who had died. Then he died the day before the uncle’s funeral.
When I first got the message of his death, I was shocked in an indescribable manner and I asked the caller in Urhobo, “ona na ki die?” translated to mean “what is this?”
Professor Otite was in his mid-sixties, he was therefore not an old man. He had a lot going for him and we were not aware that he had any adverse health condition. Many of us saw him a few days earlier and some even saw him hours and minutes before he died.
As my eyes got misty and I heaved in despair I remembered the immortal words of the Shakespearean character, Macbeth, spoken in defiance of death in the eponymous play that bore his name.
When he saw the world around him crumbling despite the assurances of invincibility and driven to despair by the death of his wife, Macbeth soliloquize poetically and philosophically, “Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow/Creeps in this petty pace from day to day/To the last syllable of recorded time:/And all our yesterdays have lighted fools/The way to dusty death/Out out brief candle!/Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,/That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,/And then is heard no more./It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/Signifying nothing”.
These lines were uttered from a heavy heart shred by grief. Powerful and unconquerable as Macbeth seems, the death of his wife and prompter, Lady Macbeth brought the reality of the ephemerality of life to him. This realization embedded in those imperishable words attests to the truism that the rich and powerful also cry.
Life is short and it can also be long. It all depends on circumstances and contexts. The dominant practice is for people to pray for long life. When people live long they celebrate and thank God. But when the contrary happens and they don’t live long, those they left behind seek solace in religion or philosophy. Macbeth opted for the latter.
The Urhobo stock, from which Professor Atare Otite sprang, had long resolved the idea of life and death before Shakespeare’s forebears were sired. Urhobo epistemology anchors the way a life is lived on “otarhe” which is the “choice” made at “urhoro” the ontological equivalent of “threshold”.
Every child about to be born chooses his or her “otarhe” in the nine months journey from “erivwin” which is “the great beyond”. He or she makes choices such as wealth, poverty, long life, short life, fertility, bareness, among other indices of fortune or misfortune.
This motif has evoked painful renditions in Urhobo folklore and music especially when the “otarhe” encodes misfortune and it is immutable. By that it had become “oberhiri” which is “destiny”. Professor Otite’s first name, Atare, is a short form of “obatare” which is in the realm of “otarhe” what he chose at “urhoro”.
What then was Professor Atare Otite’s “otarhe”? Was dying in his mid-sixties what was embedded in Obatare? We cannot know now as none of us was with him at “urhoro” to witness his “otarhe” and this inability to know also reflects in “onotasamideri” which in Urhobo means “who has been to where I was formed?”
Professor Atare Otite was a big brother to me. He was altruistic and guileless. My association with him was beyond being colleagues at the Delta State University, Abraka. His uncle and famous social scientist, Professor Onigu Otite, was an inspiring father figure to me in those days of searching for career direction as a postgraduate student at the University of Ibadan. On getting a job at Abraka I was fascinated meeting with Atare and he embraced me like his uncle did at Ibadan. From around 2003 or so I was fortunate to be serve academic pupilage under titans like Professors David Okpako, Philip Kuale, Onigu Otite, Omafume Onoge, Sam Oyovbaire, Andrew Onokerhoraye, Simon Umukoro, G. G. Darah, Tanure Ojaide among others. Professors Atare Otite and Sunny Akpotor hobnobbed with them occasionally and I served as the link person.
The academic communion yielded by that opportunity is more than what the classroom can offer. Sadly, some of these maestros are no more. We have been diminished by their exit.
When Professor Atare Otite delivered his inaugural lecture in August 2022, it was my lot as university orator to do his citation and it read thus:
Professor Atare Andy Otite hails from Okpara inland in today’s Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State. Okpara is famous for being home to two of Africa’s notable social scientists, Professor Onigu Otite, our inaugural lecturer’s uncle and his alter ego, Professor Peter Palmer Ekeh. Both of whom taught our inaugural lecturer at Ibadan.
Otite began his education at the Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC) Primary School in Sapele and obtained the First School Leaving Certificate in 1972. He attended St. Enda’s College, Agbarho for his secondary education and earned the West African School Certificate (WASC) in 1977. He capped his secondary education with the Higher School Certificate (HSC) which he obtained from the world famous Government College, Ughelli, in 1980.
For his tertiary education, he attended Nigeria’s premier university, the University of Ibadan, when Ibadan was universally acknowledged as a citadel of leftist and radical scholarship. At Ibadan, he read Political Science in the Faculty of the Social Sciences, obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree with honours in 1983, a Master of Science in 1985 and narrowly missed defending a PhD there. He was to obtain the PhD at the Delta State University, Abraka, in 2010.
Otite joined the services of the old Bendel State University, Ekpoma, in 1986 and was seconded to the Abraka Campus. When the Delta State University, Abraka, was proclaimed into existence in 1992, Otite was among those who made history as foundation staff of the new university. He has served the University in many capacities. He had been Head of Department, Faculty Representative in Senate, honorary football coach and he is presently the Dean of the Faculty of the Social Sciences and member of the Governing Council of the Delta State University, Abraka.
He became a professor in 2014 after carving a niche for himself as an assiduous and astute scholar. He has supervised many PhD thesis.
A member of many professional organizations, he is also external examiner to different universities and a professorial external assessor.
Professor Otite is married to Mrs. Igho Ekojokoko Otite and the union is blessed with children
Death is inevitable and we all must embrace it someday whether our life was a brief candle or the long Nile. What is certain as the Urhobo say is that “akpovwureeee”….”life has no end!” Yes, Professor Atare Otite is no longer with us in person, but his legacies manifesting in his intellectual submissions live on. He was therefore not a brief candle! Tode…akpo kede fa…!